You have filed for social security disability or SSI-how long will it be before you begin to see actual disability payments?

The answer to this question is, for most claimants, a long time. The vast majority of disability applications are denied upon initial review (70 percent), as well as first appeal, or request for reconsideration (85 percent are denied at this level). If your claim, like most, is denied by your state disability determination agency, and you then request a disability hearing (the next step in the process), you will probably end up fighting for social security disability benefits for approximately three years.

Sound like a long wait? Well, there are some cases that get stuck in the disability system for even longer. Why? Because many claimants do not understand the way the disability system works and, instead of following each step of the process; 1) initial claim, 2) reconsideration appeal, 3) request for disability hearing; they make the mistake of repeatedly filing a new claim, which is denied, again and again. Claimants who are unfamiliar with the disability determination system often don't realize that their chances of approval actually increase at each level, especially at the hearing level. Starting over in the process is therefore not advisable unless you absolutely have to do so.

When might it be necessary to file new claim? There are really only two instances in which it is advisable to start over with a new claim. One is when your claim has been denied due to some technicality, such as improper paperwork or lack of information included up front in your medical history, a missed deadline, or in the case in which new medical evidence has arisen after the denial. The other instance is when your case has been denied at the second level of appeal, the administrative hearing, and either the claimant or the disability attorney representing the claimant has been advised that is unlikely an appeals council will overturn the judge's decision (the appeals council is the third and final level of appeal in the disability determination process-if it is unlikely to succeed, then you really have no choice but to rethink your case and start over, preferably with more medical evidence to support your disability claim than you had the first time around).

There are some applications for disability that are relatively quickly approved in the disability determination office, but these are in the minority. The majority of claims must work their way through each level of the system, and the wait for a decision at each of these levels will most often take months, or years if you are requesting a disability hearing. Nevertheless, allowing a claim to pass through each step of the process, rather than filing a new claim again and again, is almost always the best course of action. Claimants that file the same claim over and over will most likely receive the same answer, and following this route will only result in prolonging the social security disability determination process for years, or even indefinitely.